Chapter 4: Closer

Shepard announced over the comm system that Anderson and Udina wanted to meet with her on Earth to discuss important matters. I was in my quarters at the time, lying on my bed with my arms behind my head. She said that she was going alone and that the meeting may be awhile.

What was a turian to do when he is bored and the one he loves is away? He could stare at the ceiling like I am right now and twiddle his talons. He could work on the Mako like he has almost everyday of his sorry life. Spirits, I needed a hobby.

Instead of doing something productive, I decided to watch something on the vid screen. I got up and sat down in front of the desk in the corner of my quarters and turned the vid screen on. The first thing that came up was a video of the Citadel Tower in flames. A human newswoman was talking about what happened there, then she began to talk about Elizabeth. The video of the tower changed into a picture of Shepard. In that picture, she looked so young. Glancing down at the bottom of the screen, I read that the photo was taken when she first joined the Alliance. I paused the show to zoom in on her face. She looked fresh, awake, like she had no troubles in her life. For a moment, I wished I had known this beautiful woman from that time.

Unpausing the news, I continued to watch the coverage of the Citadel for another hour, then slipped into bed to sleep.

I woke to the sound of my stomach growling at me. Giving in to it, I went to the dining area to get some nutrient paste. While I was bent over searching for paste in our giant fridge, someone from behind me said, "Nice ass, Garrus."

I turned to discover Elizabeth in a very short red dress leaning against the counter nearest me. I began to salivate.

She smiled a mischievous smile and asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Nutrient paste."

Pushing me aside, she bent over to get the paste for me. Watching her bend over made me want to do something very naughty, but instead I just stared.

When she handed me a tube of paste, she told me, "Don't eat too much. We're going out."

"Where are we going?"

After closing the fridge, she said, "We're all going to a club on Earth to celebrate our success."

"We can celebrate here on the Normandy."

Taking a step closer to me, Elizabeth said, "Don't you want to show everyone your cool dance moves?"

I chuckled. "Shepard, you know I can't dance."

"Well then, you could show everyone your awesome drinking skills."

"Alright, I'll do that then, but I don't think you should be drinking."

Leaning against the counter again, she looked at me with one brow raised. "Why not?"

"Considering you just had surgery and are not fully healed yet, I would say you shouldn't be drinking."

Elizabeth reached out and gently stroked my mandible. "Why is my health so important to you all of a sudden?"

"I've always cared about you... and your health."

After stroking my mandible one last time, she turned around and slowly began to leave, swinging her hips more than usual. When she reached the door, she stopped and looked over her shoulder to say, "Wear your civilian clothes. And be ready to party in an hour." Then she slipped out the door.

Pulse. That was the name of the club Shepard decided to go to. Everyone, and I mean everyone on the Normandy, tagged along to celebrate our victory.

The first thing I noticed about this club was that it was extremely dark inside with only a few colored lights for the dance floor and small lights above tables. In the center of the club was the dance floor with the bar on the left side of me and asari dancers on the right. Since I had no place on the dance floor and didn't care for a dancer, I immediately grabbed a seat at the bar. A young salarian was the bartender here.

"Welcome to Pulse." When he said Pulse, he raised his arms as if this club was the most amazing place. "What can I get for you?"

"Turian ale, please."

While he was making my drink, I watched as most of the crew danced and a few select men, like Jeff, watched an asari dance. Like usual, Liara was seated at a table alone in a dark corner.

"Here you go, sir."

Turning around, I took the glass and sipped a small amount of ale. It felt great tingling all the way down my throat.

Elizabeth sat down next to me and ordered a drink. A strong one, too.

"So, why aren't you on the dance floor?" She asked after she drank all of her drink and ordered another.

"Shepard, I'm sure you've been to many clubs in your lifetime and have seen turians dancing. We weren't made to dance."

"I'll get you to dance one of these days." She knocked back another drink, then left me alone at the counter to dance.

Time flew by as I drank and drank and began to get tipsy. After my sixth glass, my head began to throb and I felt like vomiting. I quickly asked the bartender, "Where's the mens' room?"

He pointed towards a dark hallway near where Liara was being a party pooper. "Down that hall, sir."

I took another drink of my ale, and for some reason my vomiting feeling disappeared, so I stayed seated to drink some more. Curious, I asked the salarian, "What else is down that hallway?"

"The private rooms. You can only order those rooms by appointment, though."

A hand grabbed my shoulder and spun me around to look at them. Of course, it was Shepard. And she was clearly very drunk. "Come on... uh... Garrus! Come dance crazy with me!"

I took her hand and she led me to the dance floor, but I almost fell down a couple of times, and so did she. Being her, she led me to the middle of the floor to where everyone here could see me dance. Shepard began to rock her head to the music and pump her arms.

"Uh... Elizabeth?"

She stopped and swayed a little. "What do you want now?"

"Can we go somewhere else? I don't want everyone to see me dancing."

She muttered something, then said, "Fine then. Come on, you big baby."

We left the others and went to a nice dark corner. As soon as we got there,Shepard began to dance really close to me and dance really... well... sexy. She wrapped her arms around my neck and swung her hips in a circle. If I was sober, I would have thought the dance was outrageous, but being drunk, it turned me on. I began to dance as crazy as I could to impress her, and it worked. She laughed at first, but then joined in, mimicking every move I made. I bet we looked like idiots.

Suddenly, she stopped to take my hand and tugged me towards the dark hallway. "Shep, we can't go down there. It's private." She ignored me and kept going, me stumbling and tripping over nothing. Once we were inside the hallway, I could hardly see anything, but I could faintly see her. She backed up against the wall and tugged me closer. Then, out of nowhere, I felt her lips touch my neck. She kissed all the way up my neck, up to my mandible, then her lips touched my rough lips. My heart began to race. I wanted more of her. Lightly pushing her against the wall, I nipped her neck affectionately. She moaned in my ear, arousing me. I then heard footsteps.

"Goddamn it!" I was shoved to the floor and hit my head on something. Shepard yelled at someone, and I vomited on myself. Then I passed out.

When I woke up, I realized that I was in my quarters, lying on my bed. My head was throbbing from drinking so much last night. Turning onto my side, I looked over the edge of my bed. A bucket full of vomit was on the floor next to the bed. The smell of it was so overwhelming that I had to get out of this room.

The dining area was full. Well, full with four people, but our dining area was very small. Shepard was eating while Kaiden sat next to her and Tali across from her. Joker was seated at the counter, sipping a cup of coffee while reading something on his datapad.

Jeff lowered his datapad and stared at me while I walked over there to get something to eat. "I heard what happened last night, Garrus. You're an animal!"

Kaiden huffed and said, "Jeff, what he did last night was disgusting. He took advantage of Elizabeth while she was drunk."

"It was my fault, Kaiden," Shepard intervened. "I lead him back there. I started it. We were both drunk and didn't know any better."

"If you would have just stayed with me all night, none of that would have happened."

"If she would have stayed with you all nights, she would've been bored to tears," I said as I took a seat next to Joker at the counter.

"Really? She likes to spend more time with me than with you."

"Oh, Keelah," Tali said, clearly annoyed. She pointed at Kaiden and told him, "Please shut up and stop acting like a small child."

"I'll just be on my way then." He quickly gave Shepard a peck on the cheek and left.

Joker laughed hysterically as soon as Kaiden had gone. "Jeez, Tali, you're in a bitchy mood today."

"I just can't stand that guy! How do you put up with him, commander?"

Elizabeth sat there for a moment, thinking. Then she responded, "Well, he's not all that bad. He's a really sweet guy."

"Heh. Hardly." Tali crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"This big guy right here is sweet too, commander." Jeff elbowed me lightly in the side and laughed some more.

"I know that," she said as she looked at me with a slight smile on her face. "That's why we are such great friends."

After that, Joker hobbled away to work on a few things, and Tali followed him to do her own. It was just me and Shepard, sitting silently across the room from each other.

"I'm sorry about last night, by the way," Elizabeth apologized.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't mean to do it."

"Of course." She stood and walked towards me to take a seat next to me. "When I attended that meeting with Anderson, I had to choose whether or not I wanted him or Udina to become a councilor to represent all of humanity in the council."

"Who did you choose?"

She gave me a funny look and said, "My old captain. He told me he was proud to serve in the council, even though he's not the type to do that kind of work."

"Hopefully he does well."

"I hope so, too. I also received a new objective. We are to search for geth across the galaxy and destroy them."

"Shepard, you know that the geth aren't the main problem."

"I know, but it won't hurt to eliminate them."

"When do we start?"

"Right now. No use in waiting."

"True. I'll follow your lead, commander."

She smiled shyly and said, "I'm glad to have you by my side."

Three weeks have passed since Shepard got the order to hunt geth across the galaxy. In that time, Elizabeth and I have gotten closer. She has been spending more time with me than with anyone else, including Kaiden. Also, I have been thinking about becoming a Spectre. There was no way I was going back to Citadel Security. The only reason I joined was to make my father notice me. He loved my brothers and sister to death, but me, not at all. I could never please him, no matter what I did. I thought that if I followed in my brothers' footsteps, he would love me as well. I was wrong.

I had to tell Elizabeth of my decision to become a Spectre... if I could find her, that is. For the past week, she has been running around the place, barking orders and leaving unexpectedly. While I was reading some data in the dining area after my lunch, Tali walked in and sat next to me.

"If you want to catch her, Garrus, she is in the conference room as we speak." She knew about what I was going to ask Shepard. I have been talking about this to her on and on, and I think she has been getting quite annoyed.

I rushed to the conference room, hoping to catch her in time before she left. Thankfully, she was still there, but she was sitting and talking to Captain Anderson. As soon as I entered, they both looked at me in surprise, probably because I was huffing and puffing. Anderson stood and exited the room, leaving me standing there, waiting for Shepard to ask me to sit or something. Finally, after a while of me standing there looking like an idiot, she smiled and patted the chair next to her.

"Take a seat, Garrus. I don't like you just standing there." She chuckled under her breath as I quickly moved across the room to sit. She turned to me, her piercing gaze fixed on me. "Tali has been telling me that you wanted to talk about something. Whats on your mind?"

At first, I hesitated. Was this really what I wanted? I mean, being a Spectre is a big responsibility, something I'm not sure I can take. Don't worry. If it's with Elizabeth, its well worth it. She waited patiently for me to begin. After what felt like an eternity, I finally said, "Shepard, I've been thinking about this for a very long time, and I just wanted to get your opinion on this, but... I've been thinking that maybe..." Garrus, come on! "Well, after being with you through all this, I mean Saren and the Geth, I have decided that I want to try to become a Spectre."

Her eyes widened at the word "Spectre." She doesn't think you can do it... ''Garrus, I..."

"Let me finish." I cut in. " I know you may not think I'm worthy enough..."

Two of her fingers went to my lips, silencing me. "Garrus, let me finish. I was going to say that I think you should go for it."

I couldn't speak. I never thought she would support this.

"You have to have a Spectre instruct you. I can talk to Anderson about this and get his opinion."

"You see, Shepard, I was wanting you to do it. No one else."

She gave me a look that said, You cant be serious. A chuckle escaped her lips, and she shook her head, as if in disbelief. "Don't you want someone with more... experience?"

"You're the only person I want to take orders from," I said truthfully.

A smile played at the corner of her mouth, and she looked down at her knees, embarrassed. "If that's really what you want, I'll be happy to do it." She glanced up, her blue eyes sparkling. "I'll put in a recommendation for you tonight, and hopefully we get word soon of their approval." Elizabeth paused, then asked, "Does this mean you're going to want your own ship?"

I laughed. What a joke! "No, I don't. I think I'll just stay under your wing for a while."

"Fine by me."

That night, lying in my bed, I thought of what my Spectre training would be like and how hard it would be. Then I thought of Elizabeth. I thought of the looks and the touches she gives me. And how every time she looks me in the eyes, I melt. She doesn't feel the same about you though. It was probably the truth. But I love her so much. She is the only one that has ever made me feel this way, so weak at the knees. That's it. I'm going to tell her. I'm going to tell her that I love her. I can't. Kaiden has already won her heart...

Those looks... She must feel something for me... I'm going to tell her tomorrow, after I finish working on the Mako. Who gives a damn if Kaiden is with her. They're not married, so I can still have a chance.

My resolve is now strengthened. I can do this. I need her with me.